"VENI, VIDI, -- " If a light heart and faith in one's own good luck are omens of success, Mark Railsford undoubtedly entered on his new duties at Grandcourt under the most favourable of auspices.

It would not have been to his discredit if his light heart had acknowledged even slightly the weight of the responsibility it was undertaking.

But, as a matter of fact, it was all the lighter for that very responsibility.

The greater the task, he argued, the greater the achievement; and the greater the achievement, the greater the triumph.

A less sanguine hero might have been daunted by the pictures with which his nervous friends did their best to damp his ardour.